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Sustainable
eNews |
August 2005 |
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IWMC
World Conservation Trust |
Gray Seals Out of Control
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Double Jeopardy for Canada's Fish Stocks
Denny Morrow
Executive Director
NSFPA Nova Scotia Fish Packers
Association
| I hope that my comments will stir up some inquiries about the gray seal
impact on fish stocks. To date the focus of impact has been too narrow (how much
cod is being directly eaten). The impact of the seal worm infestation and impact
on fish behavior as a result of heavy predation pressure in critical habitat has
been largely ignored. No one in the Atlantic Canadian industry wants to wipe out
seal populations, but man's predation can be a good thing for seal-predated if
it is well managed. |
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The boycott seemed to allow a few USA buyers to reduce price offered on snow
crab from Atlantic Canada. The biggest impacts on snow crab, however, seem to
have been buyer knowledge that inventories were high, the reduction in Japanese
demand and the U$/Canadian exchange rate. The biggest problem facing Nova Scotia
seafood exporters is that we can't get enough raw material (fish) to meet the
world demand for our products. The Chinese are buying significant amounts of
species like cod on the world market and making big inroads in our groundfish
markets.
The expansion of the gray seal herd on Sable Island between 1980 and 2005
from about 30,000 animals to about 400,000 has resulted in a large increase in
the natural mortality rate in cod in moratorium areas that have been closed to
fishing since 1993.
The gray seal is the main carrier of a parasite that has infested groundfish
in this area to the point where a scientist at DFO Moncton has concluded that
the most heavily infested fish are not surviving. Also the number of gray seals
fishing on important Scotian Shelf spawning grounds in the Spring probably is
resulting in behavior changes in cod as they follow their instinct to flee a
predator instead of aggregating for spawning.
The shallowness of media knowledge about these issues makes them susceptible
to manipulation by protest groups that have chosen the annual seal harvest as
their major fund raising and organizational profile-raising event. And by the
way, our gray seal herd is spreading southward into the Gulf of Maine. These are
large seals (500 - 1200 lbs as adults) that are aggressive and tend to drive
smaller harbour seals away from prime habitat. New England fishermen will get to
know these animals as they spread from their Canadian territory. 
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